


Negotiations

by avulle



Series: Advisor [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 05:57:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6272551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avulle/pseuds/avulle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Azula and Zuko have a nice long talk about the state of their nation.</p>
<p>Prequel to Advisor, background on how Azula gets herself pardoned and out of prison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Negotiations

The Fire Lord enters his private study, and pulls his crown from his hair with a heaving sigh.

His hair falls heavily down his back, and he runs a hand lazily through it before twitching his fingers and setting the lanterns of the room alight.

He flops onto the closest available couch and lets out another sigh.

“Ugh,” he complains, laying his head back over the edge of the couch. “Kill me now,” he mutters.

There is a moment of silence only broken by the soft crackling of the lanterns around him before every lantern in the room suddenly erupts in blue.

Zuko jerks up, eyes wide.

“That can be arranged,” Azula says neutrally from the chair opposite him.

He is on his feet in a moment, feet spread wide and both arms extended.

Sparks alight at his fingertips, and he calls—

“Guards!”

Azula unfolds and refolds her legs, her painted red lips curling into a casual smirk.

“Oh, I wouldn’t bother with that,” she says.

She raises a hand and five figures in green appear out of the shadows.

“They can’t hear you.”

Zuko stares at the five figures around him, eyes wide and chest heaving, sparks still dancing at his fingertips.

“Sit down, Zuzu,” Azula says, face still painted with a placid smile, staring disinterestedly up at him. “I’m not here to kill you.”

She gestures at the couch her had previously been sprawled across, continuing—

“If I were, you'd already be dead.”

Zuko glances around himself one more time before grimacing and falling back to the couch.

He reaches out and plucks the Fire Lord’s crest from the table where he dropped it, tying it back into his hair with a practiced motion.

“Fine,” he says once he has finished. “What do you want.”

Azula snorts.

“How _petty_. What are we, five?”

Zuko glares darkly at her, and her smile doesn’t fade.

She leans back instead, flicking a hand at the five Dai Li agents standing around them before holding it before her and picking absently at a nail.

“You really should have visited me more often in prison, brother.”

The five Dai Li agents around them vanish back into the shadows.

“If you had, you might even have noticed I haven’t been in my cell for close to a year.”

Zuko’s lips pinch in displeasure.

“I’ll make sure to visit you more often next time.”

The blue lanterns flare orange.

Azula glances at them for a moment before dropping her gaze back to her nails.

“No you won’t,” she finally says. "Besides," she continues after another moment, raising her gaze lazily to his. "That's also not why I'm here."

She looks at him pointedly, and he makes an angry noise, throwing his hands in the air.

"Then what is it? Tell me what you want."

He makes a sharp gesture at the empty room around them.

"You clearly have me at your--"

He makes an angry noise.

"You have my full attention."

Azula smiles.

"I want my freedom," she says.

"It's clear you already have it," he snarls back.

"Oh don't be dense, dumb-dumb."

She leans forward her gaze hardening, and Zuko flinches minutely.

"I want my _freedom_ , Zuko,” she says after she’s stared him for a long minute. “I want to be able walk down the street without being accosted, I want my crown, I want that which is my _birthright_." As she says it, she grows more and more impassioned, her face twisting with rage and frustration. The muscles in her arms tense, and the lanterns flare blue. “I want back all that you have _stolen from me_.”

"That's not going to happen," Zuko responds immediately.

"But that's where you're wrong, Zuzu." And, just like that, she leans back, and the lanterns around them relax back into orange. “I _will_ have it. Whether you like it or not.”

Zuko grinds his teeth.

“You know what happens when you get between me and what I want—”

She smiles.

“Don’t you Zuzu?”

His face twists in a snarl, before he smooths back it into an expression of cool neutrality.

“You mean like when I got between you and the crown of the Fire Nation?” he asks with a sneer.

Azula’s face tightens.

“Or maybe when I got between you and _Mai_?”

He pulls himself from the cushions, finally sitting straight.

“Oh, _please_ , tell me sister.”

His face twists into a vicious grin.

“What happens when I get between you and what _you want_?”

Azula’s nostrils flare, and, for the barest hints of an instant, the lanterns overflow from their cages, licking at the soft tapestries beside them before vanishing back within their cages once more.

Zuko grins with silent satisfaction, and as Azula takes a deep steadying breath.

“Yes, well,” Azula finally says lifting her hands and making a sharp gesture towards the shadows around them.

“I’m not here to negotiate.”

A Dai Li agent steps silently from the shadows, and places a stack of papers into Azula’s outstretched hand.

“I am here to tell you exactly what you are going to do.”

“Or what,” Zuko snarls out, eyeing the papers in her hand with distaste.

“Or I’m going to start a civil war.”

Zuko freezes, jaw half-open, eyes focused just to the left of the papers in Azula’s hand.

“What?”

“I’m going to make blood flow through the streets of Caldera like water, and I will paint the walls of this palace red with blood.”

His gaze snaps back to her.

“You can’t do that.”

“Oh, but I can,” she responds. “One year is a long time Zuko, and there are a great many people unsatisfied with your rule.”

Zuko pales.

Azula smiles.

“You _wouldn’t_ do that,” he finally says, his voice tinged with something that is almost desperation.

“Oh, Zuzu,” Azula says with a faint smile that is almost genuine. “You still believe I have some humanity left in me.” Her smile spreads across her face and becomes nasty and unpleasant. “How sweet of you.”

She stands from her armchair, and crosses the distance between them. Zuko holds his hand out dully, and she drops the papers into it.

“But the fact remains that I am more willing to do it than you, and that’s all that matters.”

Zuko drops his gaze to the papers before him, and Azula turns away.

“In two weeks time, come visit me in my cell.”

She walks back to her chair and rests a hand on its back, and continue speaking to the unadorned wall before her.

“Decide if you would rather have blood in our streets than me living free.”

Her voice is bright, and lightly mocking, but her face is lined, and tired.

“You’re blackmailing me,” he hisses into the papers before him, snatching his own hand away before setting them alight.

The sparks fall on the fabric of the couch beside him instead, sputtering softly before going out.

“Good catch, Zuzu.”

“And you expect me to trust you?”

He picks the pile of papers in one hands, his face twisted, and—

With great effort, he sets the papers down beside him.

“You expect me to just trust you?”

He takes to his feet in a burst of motion, crossing the distance between him and Azula in an instant and grabbing her by the arm.

“You expect me to trust that you aren’t going to do this again—” he spins her to face him, “—threatening to—”

He sees her face, and stops talking.

“Zuko,” she finally says, flicking his hand off of her arm.

“You have stolen everything from me.”

She raises her gaze to meet his, mouth turned down and eyes weary.

“Everything I’ve ever wanted—”

She takes hisses out a sigh.

“Everything I’ve ever loved.”

Zuko swallows, and looks away.

The shadows around them shift silently, and Zuko stares blankly at them.

“So give me something to _lose_.”

Zuko snaps his gaze back to Azula, and she meets his gaze—her golden eyes cold and hard.

“Give me something to _live for_.”

After a long moment, Zuko blinks, and Azula turns away.

“Over the next two weeks, many of my allies will approach you,” she says, walking towards the shadowed wall before her.

“And they may say a great many things to you, but they will all invariably ask you about your feelings on _ginseng tea_.”

She stops, body halfway covered in shadow that shouldn’t be there—

Three steps past the wall that he knows has always been there.

“I want you to take me seriously when I tell you I can bring this country down around you. So take note.”

Zuko stares blankly at the hard lines of her back.

She steps fully into the shadow—

“Goodbye, Zuko.”

And she’s gone.

 

Five minutes later, Zuko bursts from his private study, hair haphazardly tied into a messy topknot, and a sheath of papers clutched haphazardly in his right hand.

“Send a missive to Toph Beifong,” he declares to the empty air before him, turning to stride quickly down the hallway.

In his wake, the lanterns flare a bright and flaming orange before settling back to a pale yellow.

“Tell her we need her here as soon as possible,” he continues without glancing at the source of the hurried footsteps following in his wake.

“In fact—” he says, turning the corner and side-stepping a servant.

“Send our fastest airship. I want her here by the end of the month.”

There is a ragged affirmative noise from behind him, and he digs his fingers into his hair once more.

“I also need a solicitor. Several, in fact,” he continues without breaking for breath. “As many as you can find, and as quickly as you can get them.”

He passes by the Fire Lord tapestries without pausing for breath.

“Do we have any on staff?"

Behind him comes a ragged _Yes_.

“And, finally—get me in contact with the warden for—”

He pauses, grimacing as he passes by several more startled servants.

“Get me in contact with the warden of the royal prison. She and I need to have a _long_ talk.”

He comes to a stop before a closed door, and a servant hurries beside him to open it for him.

“Shall I get the librarian,” the woman asks, not looking at him.

“Do so. Apologize for the late hours—”

He turns back to the harried servant behind him.

“Remind me to do something appropriately kind to Wen for taking up his time like this.”

The woman nods, and the servant who unlocked the doors scurries away.

“Tell the solicitors you find to meet me _here_.”

He is answered with a jerking nod.

“Locate and awake any foreign dignitaries we have in the palace. Lodge them in the wooden cabins owned by the crown in town. Place them under heavy guard, and find appropriate gifts to apologize for the inconvenience.”

Another nod.

“Any questions?”

The woman half-shakes her head before pausing—

“What is it?”

“Well,” she says, not quite meeting his eyes, head bowed to the papers before her.

“Well, it seems kind of silly now,” she says.

“Ask it,” Zuko demands, glancing back at the open doors behind him.

“Well, the kitchen has gotten in a new shipment and the cooks wanted me to ask you—”

The woman shuffles her feet.

“Well, what you thought of ginseng tea?”

Zuko snaps his head back to his servant, and the woman flinches back. “I’m sorry,” she immediately apologizes, bowing her head. “I—”. She shakes her head. “This is foolish, I apologize, you have more important things you need to be working on—” then she looks up, all fear gone from her face, “ _don't_ _you_?"

Zuko takes a staggering step back, but then the woman's head is bowed once more, her posture appropriately cowed.

“Will that be all?" she asks. “ _Fire_ _Lord_?"

 


End file.
